Tips

Always heat frying oil (refers to any type of well refined frying fat and oil collectively) to appropriate temperatures which is usually from 160˚to 190˚C. Immediately after reaching this temperature, frying should commence since heating oil earlier than needed will stress the oil and result in unnecessary breakdown which will shorten its usable life-span.

The demand for fried food throughout the production shift should be monitored and taken into account in order to anticipate when fryers should be switched on or off. Keeping oil at high temperatures for extended periods without frying will lead to unnecessary breakdown.

Crumbs (small pieces of food) in the frying oil will lead to premature oil breakdown which will influence the quality of the fried food. Crumb control can be achieved by separating particles in the food such as chips before entering the fryer and filtering crumbs present in the fryer by skimming off the floating pieces.

Filtration of used oil should occur as often as is necessary to prevent crumbs from degrading. Crumb degrading causes dark oil colour, high fatty acid content, scorched and burned flavour leading to a short oil fry-life and poor quality fried food. Frying oil should be filtered once a day when crumb accumulation is minimal, once a frying shift with moderate crumb accumulation and two or more times a shift as needed when crumb accumulation is heavy.

During the frying process, let the oil level decrease to a minimum acceptable level towards end of production. This will allow for maximum fresh oil addition and enhanced frying oil quality at the start of the next batch production period.

Turn fryer off immediately after the last batch of food has been fried in order to prevent unnecessary breakdown. This should be followed by oil filtering, cleaning of fryer and covering of fryer to prevent contamination by foreign materials.